January 26, 2010
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The Daily News1 A few years ago, my good friend and confidant Rob Rainey and I fell into a conversation about the good ol’ days.2 We had talked about good times when we were kids. After a lot of fun reminiscing, I looked him in the eye and said, “Hey Robbie! You’re livin’ in the past, man!”
3 With his usual twinkle in the eye, he gazed amazingly my way and said this:
4 “What’s so great about the present?”
5 Immortal words, to be sure.
6 Rob’s words rained on me last night when I returned home from an hour at the gym.
7 When I got home, I saw that everyone was goin’ places, so I decided to relax and pull out an old show and pop it into the video recorder thingy.
8 I popped in a Show that the Workshop did years ago called simply The Show. What a fun night! I’ve been a tad down the past coupla weeks, what with grades due, old people getting ill, another buncha stresses, and thought it was time to hitch a ride to an old Show.
9 At first, it took a few minutes to adjust to the way videos could distort and not quite catch what was going on.
10 As my eyes adjusted to the raw VHS video, I began to zone in.
11 Soon, I saw the immortal song “Homework” from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
12 Within seconds this Old Hat walked through a portal into a glorious past. I didn’t dare remove my Old Hat, but took a seat on my couch, and watched the fun!13 The Show was when Ponticelli, Fleming, and myself knew we weren’t too much longer for the YB Performing Arts Department.
14 The Show came from an idea we had while drinking a few too many BV’s at Henry’s Hi-Life one fine eve, not so long ago as you might think.
15 The idea was to take songs from all the musicals we ever did at YB and turn them into a cohesive Show, and to call it simply, The Show, the idea being that we had done so many that they all seem like one big Show after a while.
16 To this day I think the concept is a wonderful one. From the beginning, as one Show would end, we would put it to bed, and then begin ideas, schedules, and auditions for the next Show, which really felt like it was all one big Show, spanning years! It connected the past with the present, and quite certainly with the future, which to be sure, is today.
17 AnywayZZZ, sounded good by our third cab, and so we whooped out a napkin and began thinking of the order of songs.
18 The first song was unquestionably “Team” from Charlie Brown. We knew that this group was special, so a song with Peanuts characters singing about the importance of the word “team” in any endeavor. The lyrics repeated this theme: “There is no team, like the best team, and it’s our team, right here! We will SHOW you, we’re the best team, in the very little league this year…”
19 After that, the Show took off. The first act included such memorable numbers as “Homework!” from Charlie Brown, “Coffee Break” from How to Succeed”, “A Secretary is Not a Toy” from How to Succeed, and several others. The second act brought several tunes from Guys and Dolls, not the least of which was the amazing “Sue Me” with Chris Ramirez and Christine Choi bringin’ it. Following that were some splendid tunes from Little Shop of Horrors, including “Little Shop of Horrors”, “Dentist”, and “Feed Me” from Little Shop of Horrors. Somewhere in there Nelsa Alexandre sang a lovely version of “Over the Rainbow” from the Wizard of Oz.
20 Naturally, we included the gratuitous Godspell set, which included Prepare Ye, Day by Day, All Good Gifts, Bless the Lord, and Day by Day. Several people from the original Godspell we did WAY back were in attendance, and I believe I introduced Diana Manzanilla and Lupe Jimenez to Evelyn Huyhn and Christine Choi, the original singers to the newer ones.
21 AnywayZ, after “Dentist”, Fina Pengosro, who just wrote me two days ago, did a flute seque of “Somewhere That’s Green” to the song “Aquarius” from Hair. Matt De Leon of Facebook fame sang that song as beautifully as anything ever, and for his performance, he won the American Musical Theater High School Honors Award for Best Actor, and that was from San Francisco all the way to Gilroy!
20 A lotta fun, but the best was yet to come. Matt also sang the title song “Hair” and absolutley clobbered the audience, and the entire universe, for that matter!
21 We did the AMAZING 3500 from Hair, a montage that must simply be seen to be believed! People moved backwards, forwards, upside down, and all over the place. No rules! It totally worked!
22 We finished with “Crazy for the Red, White and Blue”, “Good Morning, Starshine” featuring the beautiful Bree Martinez, and took it home with “Let the Sunshine In” featuring Mappy Michael Mapalla on the mic.
23 The song was a powerful plea for peace in the world, and seemed last night to be as relevant a song as I’ve ever heard.
24 So…what’s so great about the present again?
25 We’re all still here, baby!
26 AnywayZZZ, the grand skunkman Kevin Lambert hopped on the keyboards after all that, and played the Peanuts piano music you always hear, and the entire cast changed back to Peanuts characters, sloppily assembling themselves as though they were going to listen to character notes, but SO colorful and cute, and then the first notes of “Happiness is..” chimed in.
27 The cast of the Show put arms around one another and sang the anthem to friendship and love, and I found myself enjoying and drinking in every single moment last night.
28 Afterwards, <we’re back to home, last nigth> I went into my backyard for a second, just to enjoy the night. I looked up and thought to myself, “Thank you God, for making such a nice night possible for me to share!” I looked up and thought of how cool it would be if it rained, and then shot another thought up to Heaven: “Well, I guess I can’t possibly make it rain…”
29 Within seconds, rain started to fall from the heavens, all over my face and stuff. I smiled, looked over at these wind chimes that I SWEAR my Mom rings, and smiled. There was little wind, but I thought, “Well Mom, can you make the wind chime ring?”
30 Again, within seconds, the wind chimes started in. Day by Day… ; )
31 Oh, you Newtonians, do desist!
32 For the record, I thanked Mom, and not Newton.
33 Thanks for listening; it was a hoot last night.
34 I later snapped the Show Three Minutes to Midnight in there. In the middle the that performance, someone stopped to ask, “Who WRITES this stuff?”
35 “Heidi” came the answer.
36 Indeed.
37 Just thought I’d share another Workshop memory. Loved it!
38 Hope you enjoyed today’s DN as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you!
39 Oh, dear Lord, three things I pray.
40 Peace.
~H~
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